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By the title if you read words at pictures as I do you may think that I am talking about pancake mix, I am talking about baseball. Although the composition could be compared to a stack of crepes, though without the sticky jam the fluidity of the content does make the image stick together well.

Even after all this time there are still images that can be taken of Morro Bay that hold magic for me. These images were take of Morro Bay well after the sun had set using a 5D Mark II with a wonderful 50mm 1.2 Lens. Really it’s just a bay with a wonderful Embarcadero that is still always changing. I grew up vacationing here and I think that I would be happy to continue escaping to Morro Bay for years to come so long as it doesn’t loose it’s small town feel.

Morro Bay is just a small drive from California’s Central Valley and well worth the trip to escape from the winter fog or hot summer heat.

After a quick meal at “Whales Tale” that once was near Anchor Park in Morro Bay, we drove down to the wharf and walked our boxer up and down the street to get her wiggles out and enjoy some of the nice, fresh, sea air. Stopping as often as possible take the images that you see here.

Bird and Davis were married on Friday, July 09, 2010 in a ceremony starting at just the right time, the mid-day heat had just broken in Paso Robles, California as their wedding started. Everything came together beautifully with the help of Vina Robles Winery and their beautiful grounds and the correctly chosen accents. The view from facility and their grounds is nothing but the golden rolling hills of California topped with the green patterns of rolling vineyards, a beautiful location for celebrating the start of a life together for Bird and Davis both.

Bird had a hard time allowing me to photograph her wedding as I am her brother and she really wanted me to enjoy their wedding, but realized that I would enjoy the wedding best through the viewfinder of my camera and every photo captured of their big day.

There are so many things that aren’t known about these little birds, humming birds with all their charm seem to never stop moving. Humming birds spend their days flying from here to there looking for the next flower that they can stick their beak in and use their long tongue to collect nectar. One of our recent purchases, to remind us to enjoy the small things in life was this humming bird feeder and what an enjoyable time I have been able to have with it. I looked up the recipe for the sweet nectar in from which this little fellow was dining.

With friends on their way to visit, one being just as much a photographer as myself I was only able to wait long enough for them to arrive to capture photographs of these frequent visitors to our front stoop. Though many photographs were taken I thought that these were some of the best the first showing the fast movement of the wings of a humming bird.

Most of the images seen here were photographed with a Canon 1D Mark IIn with remote flashes assisting in the stopping of the humming birds wings. When food is at stake humming birds accustom themselves to things added to their environment quickly, it took only 5 minutes for them to be completely fine with the presence and flashes of my equipment. A quick read over at strobist.com will help you with an appropriate setup, my flashes were placed at 90 degree angles to the feeders.

Just a note for those who think about setting out a humming bird feeder, it may be fun for a while but keep in mind that you need to ensure that the birds don’t become dependent on the sweet sugar laden water. It’s may be best to leave them to gathering their food from the sweet flowers around your home, try to find flowers that they will frequent and that would be best overall for them.

I think that for everyone Christmas holds a kind of magic that cannot be undone, wither it is the memories that they have that will never pass away or the things that they received for Christmas that hold a special place in their hearts. I think that it is important that people look to their family for their enjoyment and treasure up all the memories in their hearts. This ornament holds a special place in my heart due to the fact that I remember it being hung on our first Christmas tree.

Every year my wife and I have a tradition that we get each other an ornament, something that we feel is special to us in hopes that in years to come we can look back on the ornaments and remember the years that they were hung on the tree and the wonderful times that we had during the Christmas season. This year the tradition will live on in my giving of a magical ornament to my wife once again and the building of more fond memories.

This photograph, a 2nd place winner on dpchallenge, inspired me to try one of my own. After about 40 photographs I decided that I had the best product that I was going to be able to get with the tools that I was using. Congratulations to the dpchallenge.com winner on his entry and I hope that you didn’t mind to much that I had to try it out myself.